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About 700 Spanish and Italian troops based in Herat have so far seen little of the kind of violence that has gripped southern Afghanistan, where Operation Mountain Thrust has so far claimed the lives of five British soldiers and 800 Afghanis.

The operation, involving 11,000 American, Canadian and British troops, is the largest offensive since the invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001. It is being conducted in the organisation's stronghold of four southern provinces - Uruzgan, Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul.

After a series of surprise attacks by British special forces and other troops in Helmand, many Taliban are fleeing to other provinces, according to senior US and Nato officers.

Western sources say that some provinces in the west and north and especially provinces close to Kabul are less prepared to face up to sustained attacks or heavy fighting. They have neither sizeable police or army contingents nor foreign troops.

"There are some very big holes which the Taliban could take advantage of," a Kabul-based Western officer said a few days before the Herat attack.

"The Taliban are being squeezed out of their traditional strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand. They will retreat either to their bases in Pakistan or to other parts of Afghanistan where they are likely to carry out guerrilla attacks."

There have been several Taliban attacks outside the southern region in the past four weeks.

In early June a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car outside a Nato base in Farah province close to the Iranian border.

Four Afghan aid workers were killed in Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of the country in late May when their convoy was ambushed by the Taliban.

Kunar province, a traditional Taliban and al-Qa'eda stronghold in north-eastern Afghanistan, has seen repeated ambushes and rocket attacks against US forces based there.

To meet these threats President Hamid Karzai has allowed two former warlords and ex-governors of Helmand and Uruzgan to arm 500 of their men. They are to be used as an auxiliary militia to support the police.

The measure is highly controversial. The United Nations and the European Union have opposed the move, saying more than $140 million (£760 million) has been spent disarming 63,000 militiamen.

However Mr Karzai is likely to raise more such militias in other provinces to meet the spread of Taliban attacks.

"The police force is drastically understaffed," he said at the weekend. "We want to strengthen district police, to recruit people at district level."